Political Quotes

“The near hysteria over trade promotion authority and the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership, the so-called TPP, is unfortunate because it is so misguided. The stakes are too high to get it wrong, and the negative arguments are unfortunate because they are so wrong. Being against TPP, which has yet to be finished, is premature, at best. Being against the TPA is misguided because those provisions guarantee people will actually know the details and have stronger tools to evaluate whether it is worthy of support. The trade agenda and the role of America in the global economy has been front and center in Congress over the last few weeks, and well it should be. The United States has an opportunity to make further inroads in 95 percent of the markets that are outside our borders and to be able to gain that access under more favorable terms. Businesses large and small that want to sell their products overseas run into much more difficult barriers, procedures, and costs than people who sell their goods to America, which has one of the most open markets in the world. In Oregon, there are two competing narratives: those who are opposed to further competition for American goods in American markets, fearing a loss of business and jobs; and those who see significant opportunity selling goods and services abroad, creating more family-wage jobs at home. The people I talk to in Oregon who are in business overwhelmingly support that access.…”